3rd Grade

Third Grade

Mrs. Belanich and her husband at a hockey game

Mrs. Belanich was born and raised in Queens. Mrs. Belanich graduated from Queens College in 2009 with her BA in Childhood Education. She completed her MS in Education: TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) also at Queens College. She started her teaching career working for CAPA after school program, which lead to a substitute teaching position at TALES in 2010 and a classroom teaching position in 2011. This is Mrs. Belanich’s tenth year as a classroom teacher. She has taught second and third grade at TALES.

Mrs. Belanich is married and has two sons, Valentino and Antonio. Mrs. Belanich loves to learn as much as she loves to teach. Her students are always teaching her new things. Besides her love for teaching, Mrs. Belanich enjoys watching her favorite sports teams play, spending time with family and friends, and traveling. Mrs. Belanich is looking forward another wonderful year full of learning with another group of great students

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Jessica Pasternak

Mrs. Pasternak has been teaching since 2006. She graduated from SUNY Cortland and received her Masters in Literacy from CW Post. She has taught first grade and second grade since she started at TALES and is moving on to a new and exciting adventure in third grade! She is a mother of two girls and resides in Long Island with her husband. Mrs. Pasternak loves to go on family vacations and enjoys seeing Broadway musicals.

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Meredith Mills

Meredith has been with the DOE for 10 years and is thrilled to be back with the team at TALES. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education at Buffalo State College and her Masters in Elementary and Special Education from Touro College.

Meredith was born and raised in Rochester, NY and moved to NYC in 2004 where she began her teaching career. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, boating, swimming and spending time with her family. She is excited and is looking forward to a positive and successful year!

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Meaghan Reilly

Ms. Reilly began her teaching career in New Jersey at a school for children with autism. She became a full-time classroom teacher in 2002 at a public school in Washington Heights, while earning her dual masters degree in Childhood General and Special Education at Bank Street Graduate School. Since then she has worked in Barcelona, Spain as a special education coordinator, and as a 4th and 5th grade teacher in Elmhurst, Queens.

Ms. Reilly is thrilled to be returning to TALES this year to teach a combined 2nd and 3rd grade class of amazing kids! She considers her small class family and loves to learn from them each day. Her favorite part of teaching is reading stories to her students that include unique fictional characters or books about real people who have left a strong impact on the world.

In her spare time, Ms. Reilly loves to travel, swim, and run. She is preparing to guide a visually impaired friend through the NYC marathon this November. She loves to run with the TALES running club! Keep up to date on Ms. Reilly's class and all third grade news through our 3rd grade webpage coming this fall!